We are sure you must have many older “general subject or family photographs”, slides or negatives that you have never got round to having re-printed? Good News! Dig out those space consuming albums, negative wallets, photos, strips of negatives or boxes of slides that you took in the days before digital cameras. Here at ellyBelly Publications we can offer a simple storage solution by offering a service to scan photos, slides or negatives and provide you with a digital image. All this is also provided using our existing processes for new prints or framed-prints from the products we already offer for our own stock railway related photographs.

The preparation and process of all of the images that we currently sell on ellyBelly Publications incorporates high quality scanning of slides and negatives and also uses powerful photo-editing software, enabling them to be printed in larger sizes. We then work to enhance the image in Adobe Photoshop to produce a file of sufficient quality to enable 18" x 12" prints to be produced from the digital file.

Any image that is scanned and printed by ellyBelly Publications will be assessed and enhanced.  We always will look at the following areas:

• Exposure/Contrast - We will assess the exposure of the negative or slide and correct where appropriate. Note that this may not always work in a satisfactory manner when scanning a photograph, so please always try and supply the original negative if at all possible.
• Colour cast - Older colour slides may often have a colour cast (often blue or green) which we can alter and eliminate thus providing a more natural looking image.
• Spots, marks and dust - Small amounts of dust can accumulate on slides and negatives. We can remove these either through cleaning or through suitable editing.
• Mould - Over time, slides and negatives can suffer from water damage or mould if they have not been stored in ideal conditions. Whilst it is not always possible to remove this completely, we will provide a vast improvement to the image to reduce its impact.
• Horizon correction - we can fix crooked pictures (although this may crop the image very slightly).

Scanning and Printing Options

We offer 3 options for scanning and printing single images:

Option A - Basic   Produce Scan at 300dpi and crop image Basic Image Enhancement and dust removal A 6” x 4” photographic print in gloss or matt Digital image in .jpg format.	Option B - Advanced   Produce Scan at 600dpi and crop image Advanced Image Enhancement and dust removal A 12” x 8” (or A4) photographic print in gloss or matt Digital image in .jpg  format.	Option C – Custom   Produce Scan at up to 4800dpi and crop image Advanced Image Enhancement, dust removal and minor repairs A photographic print up to 18” x 12” to your chosen finish Digital image in .jpg and .tiff.
Price: £2-£5 per image	Price: £10-£15 per image	Price: £20-£30 per image

 

If you have many images to restore then contact us for a price; we offer discounts for bulk orders. If a photograph requires major repairs then we can provide a quotation after initial evaluation.

How to Order

We give free estimates for all scan and restoration work, the Options outlined above are for guidance purposes only. If you have any queries then email or call us first, or use the Contact Page.

Scan and Email

The easiest way to receive an estimate is to provide a digital scan of the image you require repairing, if you have your own scanner, or send a digital file.

For slides or negatives we ideally need a scan of at least 3000 pixels on the longest edge, and ideally about 4mb (minimum in size). Ideally the scan should be at least 600dpi for slides and negatives, and 300dpi for photographs.

Larger scans may not be able to be sent via email, so please contact us first.

If you are unsure of how to scan or have some questions then email us first for advice.

Email us at enquiries@ellybellypublications.co.uk

Posting your photo or slides/negatives

For photographs or If you do not own a scanner yourself (for slides/negatives) it may be best to post your image to us. Please email us first so we can arrange posting and returns.

When posting please include your full name and postal address for return of your original(s) and restored image(s), and a phone number always helps.

Example Restorations

Below are some examples of images that have been modified or repaired.

A preserved A4

Digital images can require some editing to bring out the best in them. It is all too easy to discard some images when it is so easy to take another, but sometimes a little thought can bring great results.

 

(Before) The photograph of Gresely A4 60009 'Union of South Africa' was taken at Barrow Hill Roundhouse in challenging lighting conditions at the time that the photograph was taken. Whilst the image could be edited, it suffers from a steward wearing a high visibility jacket in the background which rather detracts from the feel of a steam shed I was trying to capture.

(After) The photograph was made black and white and had numerous adjustments made to the contrast and shadows to enhance the A4 locomotive. The change to a black and white and the adjustments made have accentuated the A4 locomotive. The hi-visibility jacket no longer draws the viewer to its existance, and the A4 once again becomes the main focus of the photograph. This work would come under Option A.

 

A King's Cross Deltic

The last example shows a more comprehensive repair of a scanned negative.

 

(Before) The original 35mm black and white negative (from 1973) was scanned at 4800 dpi and at first glance it appeared that whilst there were some scratches it would be a small amount of work to edit the image. Initial inspection suggested that minor scratch and blemish removal would be necessary as well as modifications to the exposure would be necessary. The image would also need to be re-aligned to the vertical.	(After) The final image looks very similar to the orignal at first glance. However, a lot of effort was required to remove the many scratches and marks from the image whilst preserving the shadows that make the photo so evocative. The damage to the emulsion on the locomotive's front bogie has also been repaired, and the whole image re-aligned to the vertical. The slight colour cast has also been removed. This restoration would be graded as Option C.
(Before) On addressing the issues of exposure and contrast, a multitude of scratches on the negative were revealed. With this amount of scratches, the task of restoring the image became more time consuming.	(After) After restoration, it can be seen that the removal of the scratches allows the exposure to be corrected.
(Before) The negative has some damage around the locomotive's bogie and underneath the number where there are small creases on the negative.	(After) The blemishes have been removed, both from the bogies and the bodyside of the Deltic. This magnified area also shows the colour correction that has been applied to the image.